This Simple Illustration Explains the Difference Between a Cornerstone Content Page and a Blog Post

This Simple Illustration Explains the Difference Between a Cornerstone Content Page and a Blog Post

Reader Comments (29)

  1. The wheel metaphor is great. I love the idea that the cornerstone content is part of the axle and all the posts you write around that topic are what keeps the axle spinning (or, keep your business goals moving along). Great post, Demian. Thanks! 🙂

  2. fugacious: tending to disappear; fleeting

    She was acutely conscious of her fugacious youth.

    Hey Damien, I think I should get something for providing the definition of fugacious. And on another note, I wouldn’t suggest using this in content creation as it may affect your Flesch Reading Score.

    Great post and insight and thanks for providing it. Have a great week!

  3. One thing that adds to the confusion is Copyblogger’s cornerstone content pages. They no longer link to blog posts. Instead they blog posts are collected as a ebook.

    In my opinion a great cornerstone content page should be pointed to from your other blog posts as often as possible. It’s less important that they point out.

  4. Hi Damien, thanks for the informative post. it’s all new to me, but I get the concept. The way I see it, a cornerstone content page is almost an ‘introduction’ to a post category; or a nice way to summarize the category and point to posts relating to the different aspects of that category. If that’s the case – and using the Big Brand System example – couldn’t you create a series of cornerstone content pages around different aspects of branding? Or do you only create a cornerstone content page when you have a related product you want to promote?

    • Hey Mel, no, you don’t need a product to promote. Your cornerstone content page call to action to be to sign up for an email newsletter … or just create the page to dominate a keyword category (like branding) in the search rankings.

  5. Wow, I never thought of making a cornerstone post a page. I’m a tech entrepreneur but we started an startup blog and it seems like there is a lot to learn. Thanks for this article!

  6. Great post Demian. Until now I have never really considered putting together cornerstone pages. It makes so much more sense to create them as static pages instead of hiding them as blog posts. I love the sense of humor you injected into the post too.

  7. Hi Demian, I am trying to get the concept here. So what I understood about cornerstone page is a kind of hub for all related posts. Or I would say its a kind of category page which used to hold links to posts with in that category. If this is true then we are just creating a static cornerstone page rather than a category.

    Due to it’s static nature it will be visible every time. Am I going right way or missing something?

    • You are spot on. It will be visible in your navigation or sidebar and it will be a piece you direct new articles/guest blogging links to. The goal is to get the cornerstone content page to rank for a particular keyword phrase (which would be broad like a category, i.e., “copywriting,” “aerobic exercises” and so on.)

  8. Hey Demian,

    Love the wheel image. I can vouch that cornerstone content as a page works. That’s how my main blog gained traction, by following the Copyblogger way.

    Here’s a question:

    What are your thoughts on using a category page as a cornerstone page?

    Especially now Genesis enables us to add full HTML content on the category pages. I’ve seen positive results when testing this technique but also see the benefit of using a page.

    Would love to read your thoughts.

    All the best,
    Nate

  9. Great visual for why cornerstone content matters. I like the explanation about pages too. You can see the benefits of cornerstone content in many ways from improved SEO, increased conversions, better PR opportunities, and clearer branding.

  10. Thanks for this explanation about cornerstone content. I am still going over the class materials from January.
    This post was very helpful.
    I always look forward to reading your posts here and on your blog.

    • I like how that plan gives you a good way to keep revisiting a favourite topic without just re-editing the same post, as well as improving the internal link structure. Definitely food for thought. Thanks for the idea 🙂

This article's comments are closed.